The bipartisan $700 billion financial rescue plan has plenty of warts, to be sure, but its ultimate approval by Congress would mark a crucial step toward restoring stability to the credit markets. The politics of the sweeping emergency measure remain unsettling for final passage. The latest poll, conducted by AP-Gfk, finds that 45 percent of Americans are opposed to the bailout, with only 38 percent in favor and 16 percent undecided.

Welcome to the most anticipated vice presidential debate in U.S. history. Tens of millions of Americans will be glued to their televisions tonight as Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Joe Biden mix it up at Washington University in St. Louis. For both candidates, the stakes could not be higher.

In 1974, Congress passed a landmark bill to protect vested pension benefits of workers in the private sector. To win business support for the Employees Retirement Income Security Act, the measure's crafters included a provision that multistate corporations saw as crucial to their long-term growth: a guarantee that they could not be compelled by state or local governments to provide particular benefits and thus could maintain uniform national policies.